Tessa Roseboom

13:30-14:45 session: Combining data keeps you fit

Tessa Roseboom is a professor of Early Development and Health at the University of Amsterdam. Her work focusses on how the early environment shapes human growth and development and affects health and wellbeing. Her studies in men and women born around the time of the Dutch famine have provided the first direct evidence in humans that maternal diets in pregnancy affect health throughout the life course. Subsequent studies showed that interventions in the first 1000 days of life, from conception to the second birthday have the potential to promote health. In her book (2018) she described the evidence from biology, medicine and economics of the fundamental importance of a good start in life. She is an active member of the national coalition of the government program Promising Start that was launched in the Netherlands in 2018 and chairs the Scientific Committee advising the Public Health institute on the monitoring of the Program. Also, she collaborates internationally to evaluate programs that invest in the first 1000 days in life and acts as the Public Health and Policy representative on the International Society of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. 

Ready for a good start?

A good start in life is of fundamental importance  for later health. In this talk, the biological, medical and economic evidence will be presented demonstrating how the early environment shapes later health and wellbeing. Tessa Roseboom will describe the legal challenges in studies addressing the effects of interventions in early life (preconception or in pregnancy) on childs growth, development and health, as well as some solutions to logistical challenges of such studies. She will describe some solutions to the problems associated with the legal, privacy and attrition issues associated with such studies and argue for a multidisciplinary approach using big data to come to new insights for promoting health of current and future generations.